


once again

by en passant (corinthian)



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Aphrodisiacs, M/M, Servant Class Switch AU, Sibling Incest, Torture, noncon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-24 20:30:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6165842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corinthian/pseuds/en%20passant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Servant Rider, Karna. A great hero from the ancient epic poem from India, "Mahabharata". The rival of Arjuna, the central hero of the Mahabharata, as well as his half-brother by a different father. Upon becoming unable to move due to many curses, he was brought down by Arjuna in a manner similar to deliberate murder.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Rider Karna, Assassin Arjuna. Improbable and entirely self-indulgent.</p>
<hr/>
<p>sibling incest, blood, noncon/dubcon, torture(ish), aphro</p>
            </blockquote>





	once again

Servant Rider, Karna. A great hero from the ancient epic poem from India, "Mahabharata". The rival of Arjuna, the central hero of the Mahabharata, as well as his half-brother by a different father. Upon becoming unable to move due to many curses, he was brought down by Arjuna in a manner similar to deliberate murder. 

A charioteer, he is almost simply adorned. Armor covers his arms and legs, sits at his shoulders and hips and lacks any ornate decoration. It is practical armor, its strength is not in its appearance but the meaning for what it stands for. He is invincible with it.

Unmistakably a Servant, however. Proof of his nature as a Heroic Spirit is in the red gems set into his skin, his golden earring, the coils of reins around his hands, like bracelets. His presence is that of a miracle. Underneath the armor his clothes are white, his skin is white, his hair is white. It would not be difficult to imagine him as the ghost of a battlefield, a message from the life before returned to haunt.

The chariot itself is shrouded in the sun. Perhaps it's a trick of the light, but the only thing visible are two great golden wheels — the rest is flames and heatwaves, distorted air and mirage.

Unmistakably, a hero.

The half that completes the story, too, is also a hero. The Blessed Hero, the protagonist of the Mahabharata, who is said to have virtually zero faults — Arjuna.

Servant Assassin, Arjuna. It shouldn't be possible, for someone who has gone down as being a peerless hero and supreme archer to be summoned as such a class. And, truly, for one to qualify as both an assassin and a Heroic Spirit is a feat to behold. But, it happens and even for one who has such pride as Arjuna, he can accept this as well. (It is a measure of one's character to do with what they have been handed.)

Just as the chariot — a mark of Karna's class, two times over now — is the shining sun, Arjuna is shrouded in gold and black, and represents the night. Two complimenting halves to the same idea, the rich and the poor, the mighty and the downtrodden, the night and the day. (There are other facets to their relationship, at least two others, but perhaps they are better left as secrets.)

There is gap in the armor that Karna is dressed in — as Lancer or Rider — always, his heart is exposed.

* * *

The battle had begun some time ago, the fight had been long and hard. Even parts of Karna's invincible armor had been dented, scratched and tarnished — though still left whole. The Saber of this war — though, could he really be called a Saber with that weapon? — is hardly the strongest Servant but he is determined and clever. The Saber and Caster have an alliance, and while Karna stands alone, both of them could not bring him down.

Both Servants fled, Caster's obscuring reflective 'lake' prevented Karna from giving chase. _That's fine, we can't linger too long. Come home soon._ His Master's soft voice in the back of his mind calls him home. He prepares to leave, when something else tugs at his senses.

A ripple in the air. An unseen presence. Karna wraps the reins around his palm, ready to call his chariot back — but he won't get that far. A hand covers his eyes, and an all too familiar voice (that he knows just as well as his own) sounds in his ear: "O Sun." There is no mistaking the taunt, either.

"A—"

He won't get a chance to say the name either. Assassin's other hand covers his mouth, fingers leveraging through his lips. Karna bites down, but the hand gag is sufficient to silence him.

"I only ask for just a moment of your time." Assassin's voice is placid and just a touch satisfied. It's too easy to imagine that expression — slight crooked curve of his lips with all of the emotional weight resting in his gaze. "Servant Rider, Hero of Charity, will you speak with me?"

There's no answer of course, but by then Assassin's fingers have moved to the back of Karna's tongue and he feels a soft, warm, wetness against the inside of his mouth. It tastes sweet. It's only a matter of moments before he can no longer feel his legs, or the fingers in his mouth, just the warm body that his own falls against.

"It's too bad, that we've come to this." Karna could imagine his voice tinged with regret, but that wouldn't be true to either of their characters.

* * *

In terms of power, it would be no contest. Karna's stats would have far outclassed Assassin's, and his Master, with her entire long lineage behind her, could well support him in a battle of strength against strength. In an unfair fight, however, the victory can only ever go to his brother.

* * *

Karna's hands and feet are secured, chains covered in magic circles and runes wrap around his wrists and ankles. Arjuna's black scarf is wrapped around Karna's eyes, even if he hasn't woken yet. All of these things shouldn't be possible, much like how instead of shifting to spirit form, he maintained his physical body. But even as Assassin, Arjuna carries with him a skill much like a blessing: Realized Desire. A sort of twisted ability that makes the impossible possible. It shouldn't exist, in many ways, this Arjuna is an anomaly. (This Karna is not.)

Arjuna himself realizes this. The shadow of doubt that clung to his every motion, before, is now the dominating urge within him. Something he would have called a dark urge before, but now considers it his companion. There were also orders to dispatch Servant Rider, the command burned through him every moment he delayed it. That reminded him of who he is. Even in giving in to his black heart, he ended up in conflict, it seemed.

He crouches down by Karna's head, where his hands are tied and staked to the ground above him. First, he twines their fingers together. Karna's hands both worn and surprisingly dainty — Arjuna's fingers, just slightly longer. But holding hands doesn't give him any warmth or pleasure, only a vague sense that even if they had grown up together, they wouldn't have that kind of brotherly relationship.

"Wasting time isn't like you," Arjuna murmurs, lets go of Karna's hand and trails his fingers down his brother's arm, over the armor, to where Karna's skin begins. He hooks his fingernail under the lip of the armor. The metal is fused to Karna's skin, something of a tragic memory, and Arjuna begins to peel it. He won't be able to rip it off, not by himself and not in this lifetime (perhaps, a hundred more years) but it will be enough. Blood wells up under the armor, stains Karna's white clothes red. And he wakes, with a gasp.

"Arjuna." Karna breathes the name. He shifts, but his bonds allow no more than token movement.

"Yet again, helpless before me through your own decisions." Arjuna's voice is still calm, but he's begun to speak faster. "How does it feel?"

"Is this the best you can do?" Karna responds.

Arjuna rips the section of armor up and off. Even Karna cannot hold back the soft sound of pain, especially when Arjuna presses his hand down onto the exposed muscle and flesh that had been hidden beneath.

"Destiny plays itself out again." 

"That's quite the excuse."

Arjuna stands, walks around Karna's body and then steps over him. Slowly he lowers himself down to straddle Karna, knees on either side of his brother's hips. He leans forward, to press his ear to Karna's chest. It seems unusual that Servants can have hearts and heartbeats. They're really just echoes of heroes past.

"I've wanted to take this, instead of your head." He taps his finger on Karna's chest, traces around the red gems seated there. "Because I know, this time, who you are and who you have been. Isn't this a more complete story?"

"I have always known what you are." Karna's response is more cruel than Arjuna's, in a way.

"You think you've surpassed this?" Arjuna lifts his head, just enough so he can press his lips around the largest of the red gems. He circles the base of it with his tongue, pries at it his teeth, and speaks into Karna's skin, "Desireless, angerless, ascended?"

Neither of them ignores the hitch in Karna's breath. "— you."

Arjuna's whole body, pressed close against Karna's, shakes with small tremors of laughter. Karna has only just begun to realize what was done. "Ah, I should have mentioned that this conversation wouldn't leave you in such a haughty position. My apologies."

Karna's normally pale cheeks have begun to heat and color, the way his legs shift are not to escape the chains, but because of an uncomfortable warm feeling spreading through his entire body. "Is this what you have wanted?" His voice is even, soft. If Arjuna was more easily swayed he would find acceptance there as well.

"This? No," Arjuna sighs and sits up. He rocks his hips slightly over Karna's, almost idly, his bloody hands splayed across his brother's chest. "I have wanted to kill you for so long, this is something else entirely. Should we call it a fabrication of a justification? A delay of the inevitable. Perhaps, another destiny that neither of us could indulge in before?" A bad joke, to cover his own truths.

"Is this what you want now?" Karna licks his lips, he feels parched. It's not a familiar experience and he wishes his hands were free.

"This is what I have to take, now." Arjuna's response is no more clear, but Karna doesn't get to ask another question. Or make another accusation. Arjuna kisses him instead. He starts surprisingly soft and sweet, before he bites down on Karna's lip and draws blood. Karna, of course, returns the favor.

In one move of intimacy, Arjuna grabs onto Karna's tied hands again and then as if to counter his own gesture, his other hand goes to Karna's chest to pick and peel at one of the small gems. It's only after the kiss is broken, with blood making its way down both of their faces that Arjuna leans back, a small gem in his hand as well.

"Arjuna..." Karna murmurs, but his voice is rasping with a desire he didn't know he had.

"This too is false, but I've engineered it that way." Arjuna sighs a little, flicks the red gem off into the distance. It bounces against the stone floor and out of sight. "Isn't it unusual for the Hero of Charity to be overrun by a selfish desire?" Karna's chest heaves, his breath coming faster and not at all due to the pain or the blood.

"Is this what you want now?" Karna asks, again.

"The question is, what do you want now?" Arjuna shifts back, so he's sitting on Karna's knees and deftly undoes the cloth wrapped around Karna's waist. He touches everywhere but Karna's cock, fingers trailing up and down the inside of his thigh, followed by his mouth, kisses and bites left along Karna's hip bones. "It would be best if you verbalized it. Words are the only way to truly communicate, didn't you know?"

Karna's hips rise when Arjuna leans back, trying to keep in contact with his tongue that had just been pressed to the crevice where Karna's leg met his body. But tied down as he was, the gesture was futile.

"Arjuna." Karna speaks softly, only the smallest hint of urgency in his voice. "This is a decision you will remember."

"I have remembered this moment every day of my life, already." Arjuna's answer is almost furious. Karna searches for the meaning within it and finds none. (Arjuna's fate has always been tied to Karna's, regardless of his own desire. This is, in a way, a constant.) "Will you remember?"

"I can't see your face, it would be difficult to recall you without one."

"Use your imagination." Arjuna finally takes Karna in his hand. He roughly pulls and strokes, squeezes down to the head and almost pinches with his fingers. He is not kind. It doesn't matter. Karna grows hard quickly, either from the treatment or the drug in his veins.

Karna stops speaking, and the only sounds that come from him are soft groans and harsh breathing. He might have been getting close, but Arjuna circles the head of his cock with his fingers, and constricts.

Bitterly, he says, "You'll need to say it." 

Karna wonders, how did Arjuna become a person who desired attention and affection like this, hadn't he received it from the world, before? He also though, is overwhelmed by a feeling of his own need — and a compatible desire to acknowledge this to Arjuna as well.

"Arjuna —"

"Say it." Arjuna hisses.

He isn't contrary by nature, but he has always run counter to Arjuna. Karna tilts his head back and says nothing. It's the same gesture as revealing his throat, submission, but Arjuna knows it is the opposite: rebellion.

Even still, he takes the invitation and lays himself across Karna again to bite and suck at his neck. He doesn't let go of Karna, squeezing his fingers together even more as he leaves bruises and small tears in the skin of Karna's throat.

Please, say it. I want to hear it.

It isn't Karna's resolve that erodes, but again he gives into his kindness. "Arjuna. _Arjuna_." He breathes his brother's name, and his voice sounds strange to his own ears, even stranger when he adds: "I want you."

Arjuna shudders against him, like Karna's voice has had a visceral effect. Then he laughs, low and unpleasant. "This me? You want _this_ me?"

"I do." Karna isn't a liar, after all.

Arjuna releases his hold on Karna's cock, and also frees Karna's hands before guiding them to his hips. He presses Karna's palms flat against the sheer fabric of his clothes, moves them to his thighs. "Then show me you do." His voice is soft and eager to Karna's ears — and he needs no further urging.

Despite his own want, Karna's fingers tear into the gauzy material of Arjuna's clothes, rip it easily, but he's gentle against the other's bare flesh. His hands explore down to Arjuna's knees and then back up, blindly mapping Arjuna's skin. It's no surprise that Arjuna is already hard, but Karna cradles him in his hands and starts to stroke him.

"Stop that." Arjuna's voice is low. He grabs Karna by the hair and pulls him up, their chests almost touching. "Say it again."

"Arjuna. I — want you." Karna's hands see to find something to touch, Arjuna's chest, shoulders, they even roam through his hair. He can feel Arjuna rise up a little, sit fully on his knees and he can hear the way Arjuna's breathing changes.

"Here," Arjuna guides Karna's fingers back around his hips, down the curve of his ass and inside him. Arjuna's wet fingers and Karna's dry ones spread him. Some part of Karna wonders if it isn't a painful process, he can't see Arjuna's expression, only hear the way he grunts and murmurs. And the way he commands, again: "Say it."

Karna repeats himself, I want you. I want you. Arjuna, I want you. Even when Arjuna impatiently guides Karna's cock inside himself. Neither of them is quite ready, and their rhythms don't match. Arjuna is hurried and desperate, even more than Karna is and he urges them to go faster. Karna wastes time undoing the blindfold — and that allows him to catch a look at his brother's flushed face before Arjuna turns away from him and angrily covers Karna's face with his hands.

"Don't. I will take your eyes before you see me this way." Arjuna hisses, but it is difficult to take the threat seriously even with Arjuna's palms pressing hard agains this eyes. In just a few moments, Arjuna will drop his hands, so he can wrap his arms around Karna's shoulders and pull him even closer. Faster, harder, more. Say it again. he's demanding over and over. Karna obliges the best he is able.

It is over far too quickly. Karna comes first and his spent face sends Arjuna over the edge as well. Even after they are done, Arjuna continues to rock his hips, to cling to Karna and ask for Karna to say it just one more time. Karna changes it, cradles his brother against him and presses a kiss into his hair, "Arjuna, I love you."

That is too much. Arjuna stands, abruptly and lets the mess run down his legs. There is only a slight wobble in his knees. When he catches Karna's hands he only briefly twines their fingers together, then drags him back down to the floor to rebind him.

"I'm going to kill you, again." Arjuna says, presses a kiss to Karna's lips. 

"Ah." Karna agrees.

"I love you." Arjuna admits, only after he's promised to fulfill their destiny again.


End file.
